The poverty guidelines are the
other version of the federal poverty measure. They are issued each year in
the Federal Register by the Department of Health and
Human Services (HHS). The guidelines are a simplification
of the poverty thresholds for use for administrative purposes  for instance, determining financial eligibility for
certain federal programs. The Federal
Register notice of the 2014 poverty guidelines is available.

The poverty guidelines are sometimes loosely referred to as the federal
poverty level (FPL), but that phrase is ambiguous and should be avoided,
especially in situations (e.g., legislative or administrative) where precision
is important.

The following figures are the 2014 HHS poverty guidelines which are scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on January 22, 2014. (Additional information will be posted after the guidelines are published.)

2014 POVERTY GUIDELINES FOR THE 48 CONTIGUOUS STATESAND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

Persons in family/household

Poverty guideline

For families/households with more than 8 persons, add $4,060 for each additional person.

1

$11,670

2

15,730

3

19,790

4

23,850

5

27,910

6

31,970

7

36,030

8

40,090

2014 POVERTY GUIDELINES FOR ALASKA

Persons in family/household

Poverty guideline

For families/households with more than 8 persons, add $5,080 for each additional person.

1

$14,580

2

19,660

3

24,740

4

29,820

5

34,900

6

39,980

7

45,060

8

50,140

2014 POVERTY GUIDELINES FOR HAWAII

Persons in family/household

Poverty guideline

For families/households with more than 8 persons, add $4,670 for each additional person.

1

$13,420

2

18,090

3

22,760

4

27,430

5

32,100

6

36,770

7

41,440

8

46,110

The separate poverty guidelines for Alaska and Hawaii reflect Office of Economic
Opportunity administrative practice beginning in the 1966-1970 period.
Note that the poverty thresholds  the original version of the
poverty measure  have never had separate figures for Alaska and
Hawaii. The poverty guidelines are not defined for Puerto Rico, the
U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, the Republic of the Marshall Islands,
the Federated States of Micronesia, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana
Islands, and Palau. In cases in which a Federal program using the poverty
guidelines serves any of those jurisdictions, the Federal office which
administers the program is responsible for deciding whether to use the
contiguous-states-and-D.C. guidelines for those jurisdictions or to follow
some other procedure.

The poverty guidelines apply to both aged and non-aged units. The
guidelines have never had an aged/non-aged distinction; only the Census Bureau
(statistical) poverty thresholds have separate figures for aged and non-aged
one-person and two-person units.

Programs using the guidelines (or percentage multiples of the guidelines
 for instance, 125 percent or 185 percent of the guidelines) in determining
eligibility include Head Start, the Supplemental Nutition Assistance Program (SNAP), the National School
Lunch Program, the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, and the
Childrens Health Insurance Program. Note that in general, cash
public assistance programs (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and
Supplemental Security Income) do NOT use the poverty guidelines in determining
eligibility. The Earned Income Tax Credit program also does NOT use
the poverty guidelines to determine eligibility. For a more detailed
list of programs that do and dont use the guidelines, see the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).

The poverty guidelines (unlike the poverty thresholds) are designated by
the year in which they are issued. For instance, the guidelines issued
in January 2014 are designated the 2014 poverty guidelines. However,
the 2014 HHS poverty guidelines only reflect price changes through calendar
year 2013; accordingly, they are approximately equal to the Census Bureau
poverty thresholds for calendar year 2013. (The 2013 thresholds are
expected to be issued in final form in September 2014; a preliminary version
of the 2013 thresholds is now available from the Census Bureau.)

The poverty guidelines may be formally referenced as the poverty guidelines
updated periodically in the Federal Register by the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services under the authority of 42 U.S.C. 9902(2).